• His father was court poet to Anne of Brittany
• Marguerite of Angouleme/Navarre was his sponsor. She appointed him valet de chambre, court poet, and her secretary.
• In 1526, he was imprisoned for religious infraction at Châtelet while Marguerite was in Spain negotiating the release of Francis I. Francis had Marot released on his return.
• Marot's religious views caused him to be charged with heresy in 1529 and sent to prison. He was released by Francis I, who then chose him as his court poet
• In 1534, when the French King turned against reform, Marot was in danger both because of his attacks on the conservative religious views of the Sorbonne and for his reformist convictions. His home was raided, and forbidden tracts and a translated copy of the Bible were found. These were hanging offences, but Marot had fled to Marguerite's court at Nérac, a known shelter for those with reformist beliefs. Marguerite was also under suspicion, so she sent him to Italy to the court of her cousin Renée of Ferrara. However, Renée's husband was a Catholic so Marot couldn't stay there long; he soon moved to Venice, a city known for tolerance.
• In 1539, he offered François I the manuscript of the first thirty Psalms. They were set to music by using famous or secular tunes and were tremendously successful, both at the court and all over France.
• In 1542, Marot was forced to take refuge in Geneva with Calvin
Lefèvre d'Étaples
Figure 43 - Jaques Lefèvre d'Étaples
• Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples was a French theologian and humanist and is viewed as a precursor of the Protestant movement in France. He saw himself as a Catholic seeking to reform the Church within, rather than as someone trying to separate from it.
• His 1517 work de Maria Magdalena et triduo Christi disceptatio, which argued that Mary the sister of Lazarus, Mary Magdalene, and the penitent woman who anointed Christ's feet were different people, provoked violent controversy and was condemned by the Sorbonne and Bishop John Fisher.
• In 1520, he moved from Paris to Meaux, where he was appointed vicar-general to Bishop Briconnet in 1523 and where he also published his French version of the New Testament.
• His works were often viewed as heretical, but he was protected by Francis I and Marguerite of Angoulême.
• He was a prolific Bible translator and emphasized the literal sense of Scripture over the medieval fourfold approach, which emphasized the allegorical interpretation. Ives writes of "the spiritual revivalism and non-schismatic reform of Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples."
• His approach to reform, reforming the church from within, seems to have had a real impact on Anne's beliefs and way of thinking.
Marguerite of Angoulême
One person that Lefèvre and Marot have in common is Marguerite of Angoulême, Queen Consort of Navarre and sister of Francis I. She was a famous Renaissance figure and is known for her patronage of the arts and her strong religious views. Marguerite wrote Le Miroir l'âme pécheresse ("The Mirror of the Sinful Soul"). Coincidentally, this is the same poem which Anne Boleyn's daughter, Elizabeth, translated as a gift for her stepmother, Catherine Parr. This poem is a mystical verse which combines evangelical reformist ideas with Marguerite's idea of her relationship with God as a familial one: God as her brother, father or lover.
Simon Du Bois was the printer of Lefèvre's books, which were later translated by George Boleyn. Du Bois was a protégé of Margaret d'Angoulême. James Carley comments that "during her brief period of ascendancy, Anne's name was often associated with that of Margaret [Marguerite] of Angoulême" :
• In 1532, Henry VIII hoped that Marguerite would come to Calais to meet Anne
• In 1534, George Boleyn took a message to Marguerite concerning Henry's cancelled meeting with Francis
• In 1535, Anne sent a message to Marguerite stating that "her greatest wish, next to having a son, was to see you again."
• Nicholas Bourbon and Clément Marot were both protégés of Marguerite and were also linked to Anne Boleyn. Anne helped Bourbon flee from France and employed him as a tutor for her ward, Henry Carey; she also read works by Marot. Carley points out, too, that in Anne's copy of Le Pasteur Evangélique, Marot "specifically linked Henry and Francis, Anne and Margaret."
Carley believes, and I agree with him, that Anne's links with books printed by Du Bois, whose patron was Marguerite, and with French evangelicals, both point to Marguerite being "an intellectual model for Anne during the 1530s." We cannot say for certain that Anne spent significant time with Marguerite in France, but it's possible; she clearly had an impact on Anne.
Anne Boleyn's Actions
Anne Boleyn's own actions provide evidence of her evangelical faith:
• Anne had links with known reformers - Edward Fox, Hugh Latimer, William Barlow, Nicholas Shaxton, Edward Crome, Thomas Garrett and William Betts are just some of the reformers who gained positions due to Anne's help and patronage.
• One of Anne's silkwomen was the wife of mercer Stephen Vaughan, an evangelical agent of Thomas Cromwell. Cromwell used Vaughan to negotiate with Bible translator William Tyndale in Antwerp.Another silkwoman, Jane Wilkinson, helped William Latymer, Anne Boleyn's chaplain, import religious works for Anne.18
• Anne rescued Nicholas Bourbon from trouble in France and was also petitioned for help by those in trouble for possessing heretical books. Bourbon praised and thanked Anne for her help in his verses:"A poor man, I lie shut in this dark prison: There is no one who would be able or would dare to bring help: Only you, Oh, Queen: you, Oh noble nymph both can and will dare: As one whom the King and God Himself loves."19
• William Latymer recorded Anne helping a French woman, Mrs Marye, who was forced to flee to England because of her reformist faith. According to Latymer, the woman said that she had "gayned more by her banishment then she coulde have hoped for at home emongest her deare frendes and naturall countrye men of Fraunce."20
• Anne's support of poor relief. Maria Dowling points out that "Poor relief was both a humanist and a Lollard preoccupation, and Anne was, according to all her panegyrists, outstandingly generous to the poor."21 This quality was emphasised in The Ecclesiaste.
• Dissemination of the Bible. Anne believed that the Bible should be available to everyone to read in English and supported the translation and trade of such Bibles. She kept an English Bible open in her apartments and encouraged her ladies to read it. She also gave each of her maids a book of devotions to hang on their girdles "for their constant use and meditation."22 William Latymer recorded that Anne told her chaplains "I have carefully chosen you to be the lanterns and light of my court" to teach her household "above all things to embrace the wholesome doctrine and infallible knowledge of Christ's gospel."
• Her refusal of Tristram Revell's book. Revell's version of Lambertus' Farrago Rerum Theologicarum was presented to Anne by Revell through William Latymer in 1536, but Anne refused it. The book denied transubstantiation, salvation through good deeds and prayers for the dead, and it is not known whether Anne refused it because she didn't agree with it or because it was too risky for her to endorse it. Eric Ives writes that her refusal to accept the dedication of Revell's book shows that "she had no time for radicals"; but she had also just miscarried a son, so it may have been a case of bad timing.
• John Skip's Sermon. On Passion Sunday 1536, Anne Boleyn's almoner, John Skip, preached a rather controversial sermon in front of the King. Skip's theme was "Quis ex vobis arguet me de peccato?", or "Which of you can convict me of sin?", and was an attack on the King's council and the advice the council was giving the King. It was, however, not a reformist sermon. In preaching about the abuses of ancient and traditional ceremonies, Skip said that it was right to get rid of the abuses of the ceremonies but that it would be a "greite pyte" if the ceremonies themselves were taken away: "As for theis litle ceremonys of the churiches (he sayde) I am suire their is none of you that wold haue them takon awey and no marvell therof for they cost you litle
and litle ye shall gayne by the takyng awey of them." Skip was defending the ceremonies of the church and attacking its abuses. He wanted superstition to go away and pure religion to replace it. The sermon was also an attack on the decision to secularize monastic endowments instead of diverting them to reforming purposes, something which Anne had argued with Thomas Cromwell about.
• Anne's link to Hans Holbein the Younger's painting "The Ambassadors". The painting is packed with symbolism about religious division and the hope of reunion. It is linked to Anne because she was Holbein's patron at the time and because the date shown on the pillar dial in the painting was 11th April 1533. This was both Good Friday and the day that the royal court were informed that Anne was queen. Eric Ives wonders if we can guess from the themes of the painting that Anne had sympathy with "the reunionist position".23
George Boleyn
We also have many clues as to George Boleyn's evangelical beliefs:
• Books. The books that I've listed under Anne's name previously were books that belonged to both siblings.
• George's translations of Lefèvre's books. He obviously had copies of the printed books from which his translations were derived, and spent a significant amount of time working on the translations.
• His execution speech. In his scaffold speech on 17th May 1536, George described himself as a "setter forth of the word of God", which implied that the two books he translated for Anne were not the only religious works he had completed. Ives describes his speech as "the language of Zion"; it was just as if George was preaching a sermon to the crowd. He said "And yet, my masters all, I have one thing for to say to you, men do come and say that I have been a setter forth of the word of God, and one that have favoured the Gospel of Christ; and because I would not that God's word should be slandered by me, I say unto you all, that if I had followed God's word in deed as I did read it and set it forth to my power, I had not come to this. I did read the Gospel of Christ, but I did not follow it; if I had, I had been a living man among you: therefore I pray you, masters all, for God's sake stick to the truth and follow it, for one good follower is worth three readers, as God knoweth."
• Historian James Carley believes that George may have been responsible for Anne sharing with the King a copy of Simon Fish's Supplication for the Beggars. This was an evangelical and revolutionary 16-page pamphlet attacking the Catholic Church and accusing it of many crimes. Simon Fish contested the existence of purgatory and the sale of indulgences and also accused the Church of holding half of England's wealth.
• George's evangelism – As I stated earlier, Chapuys spoke of how, when he met with George Boleyn in April 1536, he avoided "all occasions of entering into Lutheran discussions, from which he [George] could not refrain". It seems that George took every opportunity to evangelize.
The Other Boleyns
Elizabeth Boleyn's faith is a mystery; but obviously, she was married to a man with reformist views and acted as chaperone to Anne when she was courting Henry and promoting reform. We just cannot say, though, because we have no evidence of her beliefs.
Mary Boleyn, too, is a mystery. Her second husband, William Stafford, and his second wife, Dorothy Stafford, went into exile in Geneva during the Catholic Mary I's reign and the reformer John Calvin stood as godfather for their youngest son, John. In her book on Mary Boleyn, Alison Weir wonders if Stafford's involvement in the fall of Catherine Howard – by giving information about Dereham – was due to him having reformist views, that he perhaps "collaborated with the reformists at court in bringing down the Catholic Howards." Since Mary Boleyn's marriage to him in 1534 was a love match, they may have both been interested in reform. Mary Boleyn's daughter, Catherine Carey, was married to Sir Francis Knollys, a man who had links with Protestant men, and the couple went into exile in Mary I's reign. Mary's son, Henry Carey, was tutored by the French reformer Nicholas Bourbon so it is likely that that had an effect on him. He also had an active political career under Elizabeth I so would have been outwardly "Protestant" whatever his inner beliefs. His daughter, Margaret, married Sir Edward Hoby, a man known for publishing Protestant works in the reign of James I. Of course, Mary's second husband, son and daughter being reformers does not necessarily mean that Mary shared their beliefs, but she was certainly exposed to them.
Anne Boleyn's Religious Stance
Anne Boleyn does not fit the label of Protestant as we use it today, but that does not mean that she was a conservative Catholic. She was neither a radical, a Lutheran nor a Calvinist, but she was an evangelical and her idea of reform was French in its 'flavour'. Eric Ives concludes that "Her attitude would be characteristic of all shades of English evangelical reform for at least a decade more: real spiritual experience, yes; the priority of faith, yes; access to the Bible, yes; reform of abuses and superstition, yes; but heretical views on the miracle of the altar, no." England was on the verge of a true reformation and Anne died before it really took off. When you consider that the Council of Trent was still trying to define Catholicism and Protestantism as late as the 1560s, it is impossible to label Thomas, Anne and George, who died in the 1530s. If you really have to label them, then the correct label would be "Evangelical".
Notes and Sources
1 Foxe, The Acts and Monuments of the Christian Church, 6:321.
2 "Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 5: 1531-1532," n. 148.
3 "Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 10 - January-June 1536," n. 699.
4 "Calendar of State Papers, Spain, Volume 5 Part 2: 1536-1538," n. 43.
5 Ives, The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn.
6 Carley, The Books of King Henry VIII and His Wives.
7 Dowling, "Anne Boleyn and Reform."
8 Bernard, Anne Boleyn, chap. 7.
9 Weir, Mary Boleyn: The Great and Infamous Whore, 208.
10 Loades, The Boleyns: The Rise and Fall of a Tudor Family, 130.
11 Denny, Anne Boleyn: A New Life of England's Tragic Queen.
12 "Index of Kent Wills."
13 Ives, The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, 263.
14 "Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 4: 1524-1530," n. 6304.
15 Pettegree, "Wolfe, Reyner (d. in or before 1574)."
16 Carley, The Books of King Henry VIII and His Wives.
17 Ives, The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, 277.
18 Dowling, Humanism in the Age of Henry VIII, 241.
19 Ives, "A Frenchman at the Court of Anne Boleyn."
20 Dowling, "William Latymer's Cronickille of Anne Bulleyne," 56.
21 Dowling, "Anne Boleyn and Reform."
22 Cavendish, The Life of Cardinal Wolsey, Volume 2, 2:201.
23 Ives, "Anne Boleyn and the Early Reformation in England."
Further Reading
Thank you for reading this book. You can of course read more on Anne Boleyn at www.TheAnneBoleynFiles.com and in The Anne Boleyn Collection, but here are some books I highly recommend:
• The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, Eric Ives
• The Lady in the Tower, Alison Weir
• Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII, David Starkey
• The Anne Boleyn Papers (published previously as Anne Boleyn in Her Own Words and the Words of Those Who Knew Her), Elizabeth Norton
• The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown, Claire Ridgway
• Jane Boleyn: The Infamous Lady Rochford, Julia Fox
• The Reformation Experience, Eric Ives
• In the Footsteps of Anne Boleyn, Sarah Morris and Natalie Grueninger
• Henry VIII, J. J. Scarisbrick
Do check out the Resources page of TheAnneBoleynFiles.com and the Extras page of www.TheAnneBoleynCollection.com for more book recommendations and links to sources.
Illustrations
FRONT PAGE: Design by Timothy Ridgway. Featuring a vintage engraving of Hever Castle, Kent, and a photo of a miniature of Anne Boleyn painted by Roland Hui. The miniature is
available from www.TheAnneBoleynFiles.com
Figure 1 Anne Boleyn, engraving from History of England by George F. Raymond (1787)
Figure 2 The Boleyn Genealogical Tree, from Some Notes on the Boleyn Family by Rev. Canon W. L. E Parsons (1935) in Norfolk Archaeology or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to the Antiquities of the County of Norfolk, Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society, XXV p386
Figure 3 Provisional family tree showing direct line from the Counts of Boulogne to Queen Anne Boleyn © 2013 Claire Ridgway and Tim Ridgway.
Figure 4 Statue of Margaret of Austria in Mechelen, Belgium, from iStock
Figure 5 Engraving of Château Blois, from iStock
Figure 6 Marguerite of Angoulême, from Five Famous French Women by Millicent Garrett Fawcett (1907)
Figure 7 Renée of France, from Five Famous French Women by Millicent Garrett Fawcett (1907)
Figure 8 The Boleyn-Butler Link, simplified family tree showing the link between Anne Boleyn and James Butler, 9th Earl of Ormond © 2013 Timothy Ridgway.
Figure 9 Kilkenny Castle, from iStock
Figure 10 Sir Thomas Wyatt, vintage engraving from a painting by Holbein, from iStock
Figure 11 King Henry VIII, engraving from 1855 and toning by D Walker, from iStock
Figure 12 Anne Boleyn, engraved by H. T. Ryall after Holbein, from Portraits of Illustrious Personages of Great Britain, Vol. I, Edmund Lodge (1835). Labelled as "from the collection of the Right Honourable the Earl of Warwick at Warwick Castle."
Figure 13 Knights of the Bath, from The Tower from Within by George Younghusband (1919)
Figure 14 Knights of the Bath, from The Tower from Within by George Younghusband (1919)
Figure 15 Coronation Procession © 2013 Timothy Ridgway
The Anne Boleyn Collection II: Anne Boleyn & the Boleyn Family Page 25
